Question on my first gaming pc - need help

[FiremanDan]

Hi all, I recently purchased my very first ever gaming pc. I’ve been playing console my whole entire life and finally decided to make the pc switch at 25 years old.

I’ve heard building is better than pre-built, but I don’t want, nor have the knowledge and time to build my own. So I bought a pre-built.

Now I do believe I have a pretty solid pre-built...for a beginner pc gamer at least.

My specs...
CPU: Ryzen 7 2700 8 core @ 4.10GHz
GPU: GTX 1070 8GB
RAM: 16GB DDR 3200MHz
Storage: 256GB Sandisk SSD + 1TB Seagate HD
Power supply: 550 watt
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M AM4 USB 3.1

QUESTION:
I won a free upgrade upon purchasing my pc on the pc company’s website. I won an extra 3600mhz. What does that mean? The pre-built already has 3200 MHz...does that mean I now have 6800mhz? Or do I just have an upgraded 3600mhz now? I don’t even know what MHz is or what it’s used for...

Sorry for the dumb question, I’m completely new to EVERYTHING gaming pc related. I don’t understand pc parts yet and what they do.

 

[DXCHASE]

First off, thats not a bad pre-built, hopefully it didnt cost you a whole lot, i would tell you to add another SSD or nvm.e if you can, at least a 1tb or more because you will need space for games and they run a whole lot faster on one than an HD.

The extra 3600mhz has to do with your RAM, you probably won an extra stick or 2 for that, so you would be going from 16 to 32GB DDR, unless it was lower when you bought it and the bump up to 16GB is the added RAM.

 

[FiremanDan]

First off, thats not a bad pre-built, hopefully it didnt cost you a whole lot, i would tell you to add another SSD or nvm.e if you can, at least a 1tb or more because you will need space for games and they run a whole lot faster on one than an HD.

The extra 3600mhz has to do with your RAM, you probably won an extra stick or 2 for that, so you would be going from 16 to 32GB DDR, unless it was lower when you bought it and the bump up to 16GB is the added RAM.

It was just under $1000. I know I probably could’ve got better parts for the same price or even less, but I still think I got a lot of bang for the buck compared to most pre-builds.

But yeah the pre-built already comes with 16GB DDR. So I guess the upgrade is a 32GB. Also...what does this mean? Will my pc run faster..? I need a PC for Dummies book lol.

 

[Brian Boru]

Will my pc run faster..?

Probably not, unless you run something which requires a lot of RAM, like say video editing. 16GB is fine for almost everything, altho I'm not familiar with the newest games requirements—maybe some of them can use it.

In short, more RAM means you can run more apps at the same time. Windows needs a few gigs for itself, say around 4, and the remaining RAM is available for other apps like browsers, games, playing videos etc etc.

I’m completely new to EVERYTHING gaming pc related. I don’t understand pc parts yet and what they do.

Welcome to the start of your learning experience Do some searches for things like "how does a PC work?" or "main parts of a PC" and read a few of the articles or watch a few videos. Gradually it'll start to make sense—but don't get discouraged beforehand, it can take a while to 'click'.
PS HowStuffWorks.com & Instructables.com usually have good stuff with clear explanations.

In brief, main parts:

PSU—the power supply unit controls getting electricity from the wall and distributing it to the various parts in the PC which need it, the main one being the motherboard.

Motherboard—like the foundation of a house, most everything else attaches to the mobo and it handles much of the communications between the various parts.

CPU—the engine, which does a lot of the grunt work to make your software perform. They are crazily impressive little guys, capable of doing billions or even trillions of 'jobs' per second.

RAM—like your desk or table in your room, where you lay out whatever you're working on at the moment. More RAM is like a bigger table, you can have more jobs laid out to work on.

GPU—like CPU+RAM, but focused on graphical work such as redrawing the screen on your monitor 60 or more times per second. Games typically put a heavy load on the GPU, especially action games where there are lots of on-screen things changing at the same time.

Storage—your disks where all your info is stored long-term. Info is pulled from the disks into RAM so it can be worked on, and the finished result is put back on the disks for storage.

The main difference with RAM is that RAM doesn't store stuff long-term—it discards whatever it's been working on when the job is finished. So back to your room, the disks are like your shelves and drawers where you put your stuff after you've finished working on it—this clears your table for other jobs, just like RAM clears itself for the next jobs.

Input/Output—how you interact with the PC. Typically you provide input via keyboard and mouse, pressing this key, clicking that icon or link. Output is usually to a screen or a printer, how the PC shows you the results you want.

There are various other bits as well which are important, like sound system, wireless communication, cooling etc.

Main Tips:

Heat is the enemy—do not block any sides which have grills on them, they're part of the vital cooling system. If the PC is in a dusty place, at least once a year remove the case and clean out the accumulated grime.

Losing important info is the enemy—you can always reinstall programs, games, even Windows itself, but you can never recover any personal stuff you make like documents, photos etc. So learn how to backup your personal info.

 

[FiremanDan]

@Brian Boru that was super helpful. Thank you very much